English

At Gateway we use English to communicate in both written and spoken form. We use language to build our view and opinion of the world and our community. We believe that developing a love of our language in our children is vital in achieving success at school and later in life. The exploration and enjoyment of the English language is our priority and we value all its aspects –speaking, listening, reading and writing. English is taught daily across the whole school with a separate Reading and Writing lesson.

Speaking and Listening

Talking is fundamental to learning. Pupils are encouraged to speak clearly, confidently and with expression in order to state their ideas and opinions. Just as important is the need to listen carefully to others and respond in appropriate ways. At Gateway pupils are given opportunities in all areas of the curriculum to develop their speaking and listening skills, in paired, group or whole class situations. Therefore, role play, small world and drama activities are intrinsic elements of speaking and listening across the school and crucial to the development of writing. Extra support is given to children with Speaking and Listening difficulties and with English as an Additional Language. We are a Voice 21 school and oracy sits at the heart of our full curriculum. Voice 21 strategies such as nest-pair-share and agree, build, challenge are embedded across our school and can be seen in all lessons.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

We place great value on the importance of accurate spelling and the correct use of punctuation and grammar. We follow the National Curriculum 2014 to ensure that teaching is both structured and rigorous throughout the school. We follow the RWI phonics programme to ensure a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One and the RWI spelling programme as the children move through Key Stage Two. We use Grammarsaurus to provide a skeleton for our SPAG lessons and use Spelling Shed to sequence the development of spelling patterns.

Writing

At Gateway we aim for children to be independent writers. We use Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing principles as our structure to the teaching of writing and from this encourage them to write clearly and with confidence in any given genre. We teach them to use punctuation and grammar accurately, to be able to proofread their own work and make amendments and improvements. Our teaching of handwriting encourages children to place value on the development of correct letter formation and neatly presented work. We give children a wide range of opportunities in which to develop their writing skills and display work of which they are proud. Through our English curriculum, we aim to nurture in the children a love of literature and language and for them to leave us with the skills required for their future education.

Our children are involved in the setting of their own targets for improvement from Key Stage 1 onwards, their progress is rigorously monitored through termly target setting and Pupil Progress Meetings.

Reading

At Blackpool Gateway Academy, we understand the vital role that reading plays in a child's life and strive to make every student a skilled and confident reader. We use a rigorous reading program with sequenced learning to ensure all children achieve depth and progression in their reading knowledge and skills. Our primary goal is for every student to leave capable of reading fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, with a lasting love for books. We've also carefully designed our curriculum to raise vocabulary and oracy, considering the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND and EAL, within our specific school locality.

Teachers plan their reading lessons by taking objectives from the Reading Ladder which combines thoughtfully planned knowledge and skills which should be taught throughout: Autumn, Spring and Summer Term. Teachers are expected to cover the key reading skills during their daily lessons- Monday to Thursday. Then, the children complete Rising Stars Assessments on a Friday which highlight any reading skills which require more development

At Blackpool Gateway we cultivate a deep, lifelong passion and skill set. Our curriculum is designed to push past the National Curriculum's minimum requirements, making sure every pupil leaves us as a truly sophisticated reader. From the very start, we lay solid foundations with rigorous, systematic approaches like RWI (Read Write Inc.) phonics and Talk for Writing. Then, as the children move into Key Stage 2 (Year 3 onwards), the focus shifts to a deliberate, explicit dissection of comprehension. We break reading down into the key, high-level skills—Inference, Summary, Prediction—so students know exactly what good readers do.

Crucially, we put a huge emphasis on vocabulary by teaching etymology and morphology—that's the knowledge of root words, prefixes, and suffixes. This equips our pupils with the analytical tools to unlock the meaning of complex words in any text they encounter, not just the ones we teach. Finally, we ensure our pupils have a rich "reading diet". They engage with an expansive range of high-quality fiction, poetry, myths, legends, and texts from diverse global cultures. This breadth of exposure allows them to move beyond surface-level understanding and practice advanced skills, like making deep comparisons across different books, ultimately leading to that wonderful moment where they become truly independent, critical readers

We recognise the importance of author visits to help develop a love of reading and writing and an understanding of the craft of being a writer.